Decapitated – Waclaw “Vogg” Keiltyka

After a motor vehicle accident in 2007 which resulted in the tragic loss of drummer Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka and seriously injuring vocalist Adrian “Cowan” Kowanek, guitarist Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka made the decision to continue with Decapitated last year after a long hiatus. Returning to our shores in April, Metal Obsession recently had the opportunity to talk to guitarist Waclaw Kieltyka about continuing the band, his involvement with Lux Occulta, and the recent controversies in his native Poland.

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Vogg: Hello, it’s Vogg from Decapitated.

Metal Obsession: Hi, it’s Megan from Metal Obsession, how are you doing?

V: I’m great, thank you. How are you doing?

MO: I’m good. What time of the morning is it over there?

V: It’s 11.30am here. What time is it over there?

MO: 9.30 in the evening.

V: Not too late for you over there?

MO: No, but I don’t have to work tomorrow anyway.

V: That’s cool.

MO: And you’ll be here in Australia in a few weeks, are you guys looking forward to the tour?

V: Yeah, we’re very excited about it, we cannot wait. We hope it will be a great tour. We’re on with some very amazing bands, like Misery Index, Origin and Psycroptic.

MO: Last time you were here was in 2007, and with the new lineup, what can Australian audiences expect from a Decapitated show, and what songs will you be including in the set list?

V: They can expect a really nice death metal show, we will do mostly stuff from the last album, some songs from the first album and everybody can find something from different albums. For sure you’ve heard about the change of the lineup, new vocalist, new drummer and new bass player. If the people can see the new lineup, they can expect a different band, but they are very good performers.

MO: Your last album, Organic Hallucinosis was released in 2006, will you be working on a new album in the near future?

V: We just started working on some riffs for a new album, but it’s still too early to talk about it.  The new lineup has been playing together since only January. We first want to concentrate on our upcoming tours. After the touring we will be going into the studio in December 2010 or January 2011. The new album should be ready for release in 2011, provided there are no problems during the process.

MO: Have you done any complete songs?

V: No complete songs, only some riffs and song ideas. We are only into the early stages of working on the album.

MO: My next question is not about Decapitated, it’s about Lux Occulta.  Are they still active?

V: Do you know Lux Occulta in Australia?

MO: Yes, I’ve got their album Dionysos.

V: That’s cool! Wow, I’ll have to tell the guys about it, they will be happy. Lux Occulta, as a band, is actually defunct. I was thinking, together with Jaro.Slav [Jaroslaw Szubrycht, vocals] and U’rek [Jerzy Glód, keyboards] to possibly reform Lux Occulta. They were a very well-known band in Poland, and then after a while the guys made the decision to stop the band. And even if we don’t play any live shows, I think that there is still a chance for a comeback. I’m not the chief, [Lux Occulta] is not my band, so it’s not my decision about a comeback, but possibly it will happen in the future if the guys make that decision. It was very cool to play in this band, very different from [Decapitated].

MO: On the subject of Poland, with recent events happening there, most notably the controversy behind Gorgoroth‘s DVD Black Mass over Krakow, and Behemoth‘s Nergal being charged with religious offence for ripping up a bible on stage, as a band, do you feel that these developments make Decapitated feel nervous as far as freedom of artistic expression?

V: You have to know that Poland is a very Catholic country, and it’s very traditional. There are a lot of churches. If someone does something like that, especially a metal band, they should know that there will be people who will turn against them. Here in Poland there’s a lot of people they didn’t like, very Catholic, and I’m sure that Nergal and Gorgoroth should have been thinking about what they were doing.

I know that Nergal had huge problems this time, there’s this guy here in Poland, one really fucked-up guy, really Catholic dude, he wanted to take him to jail, who’s always fighting between artists who want to express their feelings about [Catholicism]. Nergal is a very anti-religious guy, and wants to express his sentiments on stage. For him in my opinion it’s a huge risk to be doing stuff like that especially in a country like Poland, there are a lot of people who didn’t like the stuff he was doing.

I look at this in an objective way, I don’t care about religion, people who are always fighting about religion, about their beliefs, about politics, I’m more into the music and into the art. I don’t want to harm anybody, or piss anybody off with what I’m doing. My opinion about this is, if Nergal and Gorgoroth want to do this, it’s always no problem, but they have to know that there are people who are waiting for stuff like that, to be careful with some people if they want to do things like that on stage.

MO: Where are Decapitated be touring after the Australia/New Zealand tour?

V: After Australia and New Zealand, we will be playing a festival in Denmark in April, after that we play a metal fest in Europe, then we do a European tour. We’ll be playing the big festivals such as Metal Camp and Hellfest. After Europe we do the Summer Slaughter tour in the US and Canada. In October we do a two-week tour in Poland then after that we concentrate on the new album.

MO: Is the charity that is collecting money for Witek’s and Covan’s families still accepting donations?

V: Yes. Anybody who wants to help out their families, especially Covan because he is still recovering, you can send an e-mail to me on decapitatedband@gmail.com and I will answer all questions or go to the links on the Decapitated MySpace page.

MO: That wraps up the interview, any last comments for the Australian fans?

V: We are excited about going down to Australia to play, and to be touring with Misery Index, Psycroptic and Origin. I’m really proud to be headlining this tour. We’ll be in great form and you can see four amazing death metal bands playing together on the one stage. It should be interesting for sure!

MO: Thankyou for the interview.

V: Not a problem, and thank you for supporting the band.

Q’s: Megan Masters
A’s: Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka
Date: 16 March 2010
Origin: Poland

www.myspace.com/decapitated
www.decapitatedband.net

Catch Decapitated with Misery Index, Psycroptic and Origin on their Australia/New Zealand tour in April:

April 1, 2010  – The Transmission Room – Auckland, NZ
April 2, 2010  – The Esplanade Hotel – Melbourne, AUS
April 3, 2010  – The Gaelic Club – Sydney, AUS
April 4, 2010  – The Hi Fi Bar – Brisbane, AUS
April 5, 2010  – Fowlers Live – Adelaide, AUS
April 6, 2010  – Black Betty’s – Perth, AUS